


Day Eleven: Secret Santa Gift Exchange

by elizabethwcu



Series: December 2014 Fanfiction Challenge [11]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: DECFANFIC, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-12
Updated: 2014-12-12
Packaged: 2018-03-01 03:30:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2757914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizabethwcu/pseuds/elizabethwcu





	Day Eleven: Secret Santa Gift Exchange

Louis really, really, really does not want to go to this Christmas party. He doesn’t like anyone that’s going to be there, except Niall. All of the people he works with are old and mean and hate their lives, except Niall. He’s younger than Louis, which was hard for Louis to believe when he started working there, and so full of life that even the oldest and meanest people who worked there smile when Niall walks in.

Louis dares to say that Niall is his friend and really hopes that Niall feels the same way. It’s hard to tell when Niall is being genuinely nice or just acting nice. Louis thinks that he’s got it figured out, but he’s not completely sure.

So now he is standing on the front porch of one of the mean old person’s houses with his ten-dollars-or-under Secret Santa gift, fist raised to knock on the door.

"Louis?" he hears someone behind him ask, but he knows exactly who it is by the thick Irish accent.

"Niall!" he says, turning around and wrapping his arms around him. "Do you want to be here as much as I do?"

"If by that, you mean not at all, then yeah." Louis makes a shocked face, and Niall laughs. "What? Am I supposed to be excited about spending two hours of my time in some stuffy old woman’s house with nothing to eat but stale snacks? No thanks."  
"No, I just thought that you liked everyone that we worked with," Louis says, and this time it’s Niall who makes the face.

"Those old people? Not at all. You’re the only one that I really like." If Louis didn’t know any better, he’d think Niall was flirting. But he does know better, so. And as far as he knows, Niall is straight. Louis himself is bisexual, and he knows that he’s not completely unfortunate looking, but even he knows that he’s not hot enough to make Niall even consider it.

"Hey, you wanna go somewhere else?" Niall asks, and Louis would accept, but…

"What about the Secret Santa?" Louis was really looking forward to seeing what crappy gifts the old people got each other. He got Niall, and was thanking every lucky star he had when he pulled Niall’s name out of the hat.

"I rigged it so we got each other," Niall says, grabbing Louis’s hand and leading him away from the door.

"You what?" Louis squawks, half appalled and half impressed that Niall rigged the Secret Santa.

"I rigged it so that we got each other for the Secret Santa, or can’t you hear? Do I need to go in and get one of the old ladies’ hearing aids?"

"No."

"Okay then."

Twenty minutes later, Louis is squished next to Niall in a booth in some diner. Louis had said it was okay for Niall to sit across from him, but Niall insisted that he wanted to sit next to Louis.

They placed their order (Niall ordered half the damn menu) and got their drinks and are now sitting in silence. Louis and Niall go to talk at the same time, then laugh.

"Is it just me, or does it feel like we’re on an awkward first date?" Louis asks, and Niall smiles.

"Yeah, it feels that way for me, too." It’s silent for another couple of minutes, then Niall asks, "Do you want to exchange gifts now?"

"Uh, sure," Louis says, picking up the small box and handing to Niall, picking up the box that Niall hands him.

"How did you rig it, anyway?" Louis asks, tearing into the paper.

"I looked at the names I got until I found yours," Niall says, then adds, "Betty was talking to Lorraine while I was picking. I just made sure they weren’t looking at me and found your name."

Louis nods, then opens the box and laughs. “Are you serious?”

"What?" Niall asks, a worried look on his face.

"Just - just open yours."

Niall does, and finds out why Louis was laughing. “Oh my God. We got each other the same thing! Classic.”

Their food comes a minute later, and they spend their meal talking and getting to know each other a little bit better. By the end of the meal, it’s like they’ve known each other all their lives.

And if they walk out of the restaurant holding hands, and if they kiss when Niall drops Louis off back at whoever’s house to pick up his car, well. A happy Christmas for Louis, indeed.


End file.
